Uber, Grab shun pack­age de­liv­ery

Trans­port net­work ve­hi­cle ser­vices (TNVS) Uber and Grab will re­ject book­ings if the pur­pose is to solely de­liver pack­ages with­out the pas­sen­gers fol­low­ing re­ports that ride-shar­ing ser­vices are now be­ing used to dis­trib­ute pro­hib­ited drugs to their clients.

The new mea­sure was agreed upon as Uber and Grab met with the Philip­pine Drug En­force­ment Agency and the Land Trans­porta­tion Fran­chis­ing and Reg­u­la­tory Board to raise the con­cern.

LTFRB Chair­man Martin Del­gra said the board will draft an or­der that would com­pel the trans­port net­work ve­hi­cle ser­vice part­ners to un­dergo drug test­ing.

De­scrib­ing the sit­u­a­tion as very alarm­ing, PDEA set the meet­ing with con­cerned par­ties as driv­ers of ride-hail­ing ap­pli­ca­tions have be­come un­sus­pect­ing chan­nels in the il­le­gal drug trade.

Uber head of com­mu­ni­ca­tions Cather­ine Avelino said the rideshar­ing com­pany had asked its driver part­ners to ex­er­cise ex­treme cau­tion and to only ac­com­mo­date trips with riders.

PDEA is­sued the ad­vi­sory af­ter re­ports showed that sus­pected drug dealer Jovet Atil­lano, 32, used the TNVS to ferry il­le­gal drugs metic­u­lously hid­den in­side pack­ages to his cus­tomers.” Atil­lano was ar­rested in a buy-bust op­er­a­tion in a con­do­minium unit in Man­daluy­ong City.